


bundle up darling, you're on your own now

by Frog_that_writes



Series: bahumia high (highschool au) [1]
Category: Not Another D&D Podcast (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Im here for a good time, M/M, because i like projecting idk, bev just doesnt know he's gay and it breaks his little mind, beverly is an awkward little bean i love him a lot, how does that work? fuck off, i didnt even know that was a tag but its perfect, idek what all is going to happen in this, internalized homophobia?? kinda??, lots of lgbt stuff, modern au but still fantasy races and classes and stuff, title from the crane wives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:42:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25376368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frog_that_writes/pseuds/Frog_that_writes
Summary: Freshmen Beverly Toegold the Fifth is not worried at all for his first day at highschool. He's not worried that he doesn't share any classes with his friends, and he's sure not worried about the home ec class that he shares with seniors. Not at all.
Relationships: (eventual) Erlin Kindleaf/Beverly Toegold V
Series: bahumia high (highschool au) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1837699
Comments: 8
Kudos: 45





	1. Chapter 1

Beverly Toegold the Fifth was not worried about his first day of highschool, no sirree. Because Beverly Toegold the Fifth was a brave soldier of Pelor and a brave scout and he wasn’t going to let a little thing like an overwhelming schedule where he shared no classes with the only friends he’s had since kindergarten stop him from making the most of his first day at Bahumia High!

Even if he really, really wished he hadn’t let his dad talk him into taking health and gym over the summer for the sake of being able to fit in another class. Or talk him into taking all advanced classes. Or into taking the celestial and infernal languages class instead of the elvish course all his friends had agreed to take. Or-

Well, it didn’t matter, because he wasn’t nervous at all!

At least he had gotten to share the bus ride with Erlin, pressed up against him in the seats that would have been too small to share by then if they weren’t built to facilitate races much larger than halflings. They had sat rather close either way, and Beverly ignored the way the odd feeling in his stomach hadn’t been entirely nerves when he felt the heat of Erlin’s body as their arms brushed.

Whatever those feelings were had vanished when he walked through the front door and found himself adrift in a sea of teens much taller than him who all seemed infinitely more aware of what to do and where to go. He lost sight of Erlin almost immediately, and they barely got to share a final “see you at lunch!” before they were being shoved off in seperate directions, desperately trying to remember where their homerooms are from the somewhat chaotic freshmen orientation. 

As the day went on his nerves slowly dwindled as he got to know his new teachers and classmates. He doubted he would ever grow as close to any of the kids he met as he was with Erlin, Cran, and Derlin, but for the most part, they seemed nice. There were a few he already knew he would avoid like the plague, but he resolved to try to become at least friendly with his classmates for the sake of not having the most lonely year imaginable. 

And then it was sixth period, and the dread reappeared, this time the feeling impossibly heavier in his stomach. Because it was time for home ec, the one elective Beverly had managed to fit in his schedule. Normally, this would not be much of a reason for complaint, but he recalled the guidance counselor, Mr. Cobb’s, words when he had gone to pick up his schedule. With all his advanced classes, it was a bit of a challenge to fit him into an elective that freshmen could take. As it was, they had just managed to get him into a home ec 1, but it ended up being one that was rather heavily populated with seniors. In fact, he was the only underclassmen in the whole group. And Beverly had no idea how to talk to seniors. 

He made his way down the stairs that were tucked into the corner of the school and checked door numbers until he found the home ec room. Attempting to be as silent as possible, he made his way into the room and immediately slinked to an unpopulated corner where he did his best to vanish into his shadow, wishing that he had done a level of rouge. Everyone was talking amongst themselves, likely classmates who had known each other for years catching up after the summer. The room was set up into seven stations, each containing a stove, a sink, and a couple cabinets. Beverly was really, really, getting a bad feeling about how this class would operate.

Eventually, the bell rang and the glowering teacher at the desk in the front center of the room stood up and cleared his throat until everyone fell silent. 

“You’re in this class to learn how to cook,” he said simply. “Or to fulfill a credit requirement. Honestly, I don’t care. But I haven’t had a student sustain a serious injury in this class since I took this position, and I would rather not break that streak. How your dishes turn out is irrelevant, all that matters is that you  _ pay attention  _ to your surroundings and manage to not injure yourselves in the hour you spend in my room. With that, feel free to divide yourselves up into stations of four. There should be one lab of three.”

There was a mad dash as students did their best to find themselves paired with their friends. Beverly hung back, content to find himself with whoever still needed a partner in the end. That is, until he noticed a tall pink haired elf waving enthusiastically at him, and pointing to the station where she stood alone with a bored looking human. Glancing around a bit to verify she was actually pointing to him, he walked over. 

“Howdy there youngin’!” She called enthusiastically in the same accent he often heard the crick people use. That explained her overalls at least. And bare feet, though he supposed he couldn’t judge on that part, considering his people didn’t wear shoes either. The bored looking human looked up from his phone at this sudden exclamation and furrowed his brow.

“Moony, who’s this?” 

“Hardwon, don’t be rude! Just cause he’s a little freshie from the looks of it don’t mean he can’t introduce himself. Oh Melora, that’s mighty presumptuous of me! What’s your pronouns youngin’?”

“I-” Beverly stuttered, eyes wide. This was a lot. 

“You’re confusin’ ‘em,” The human snorted. “My name’s Hardwon. This is Moonshine. I use he/him pronouns or they/them some days. Moony uses pretty much any pronoun set you can think of.”

“Right,” Beverly nodded like that made sense. Were pronouns a elf thing? Or a human thing too, he guessed. “Um, I’m Beverly. He/him pronouns, I guess?”

“Nice to meet you young Bev!” Moonshine enthused. “Look, I really didn’t want to get stuck with some of the kids in this class, and you looked like you could use a partner, so I hope you don’t mind teaming up with Hardwon and I.” 

Even if Beverly hadn’t been willing to partner with them, he didn’t have much of a choice at this point. Everyone was for the most part divided neatly up into groups of four, sitting on the low stools around the counters that attached to the stoves. Beverly just smiled, hoping it didn’t look as nervous and off kilter as he felt. 

“There should be four papers at all of your labs,” the teacher announced suddenly. “These are contracts stating that you will not muck around in my class and damage the school property. I expect each of you to have them signed and returned as soon as possible. We will not start cooking until everyone has done so. Also, please list any food allergies you have on the back. Anaphylactic shock happens to count as one of the injuries I would like to avoid on my record.”

“He’s a bit scary,” Beverly muttered as the rest of the class went back to talking. He immediately colored as it became clear Moonshine had heard him from her laughter.

“Aw, Mr. Watchman’s full of hot air,” she waved. “He acts like a bit of a dick, sure-” Beverly certainly  _ did not  _ gasp slightly at the cuss “- but he’s easy to ignore if you don’t push his buttons.”

“R-right,” Beverly said. This day was overwhelming. “Well, I look forward to being lab partners with you!” He stuck out his hand, a little embarrassed to have taken so long to remember his manners. 

Moonshine and Hardwon shared a look, and looked largely amused as they shook his hand, but Beverly counted them being polite and not outright making fun of him a success. He wasn’t  _ great  _ at knowing what was polite and what was weird. 

“Yeah, looking forward to it too kid,” Hardwon nodded as he went back to his phone, plugging in a slightly tangled cord of earbuds.

“Don’t mind him,” Moonshine stage whispered. “He’s awkward.” 

If Hardwon was awkward, what the Pelor was Beverly?”

But saying that was weird so Beverly politely smiled and nodded. 

The rest of the period passed with Moonshine asking Beverly enthusiastic questions about any topic she could think of while Beverly stuttered through answers. It was a little scary, and he kinda felt like throwing up by the time the bell rang, but it was also a little nice.

Maybe he would make some friends this year afterwards. 


	2. Chapter 2

Beverly doesn't understand what's wrong with him. 

The nerves from his first day of school had vanished quickly, replaced with the joy of learning new things and the excitement of spending home ec class with his new best friends and lunch with his old. Occasionally there are small hiccups throughout his first month at Bahumia High, but Beverly has found them to be mostly small moments, easily brushed off and forgotten in his happiness. 

So why does he still feel so nervous every morning on the bus, barely able to concentrate on anything but Erlin's skin pressed against his? Why does he still lay awake at night unable to think, too caught up in replaying every word that made up their lunch time conversation? If he's not nervous about school, what  _ is _ he nervous about? 

It’s gotten to the point where the anxiety is no longer solely present on whatever unidentified issue he has, but has seeped into normal parts of his everyday life. He finds himself daydreaming in class about his future, doodling instead of taking notes and wondering about why all the situations he daydreams seem to upset him so much. He thinks about a pretty halfling woman and kids with his eyes and becoming Captain like his dad and settling down in Galadhome like he should. It doesn't feel like he should. 

When Beverly focuses back into the world, he realizes he has once more been doodling rather than dutifully taking notes. To be fair, it seems no one else in the class had been, so maybe it hadn't been necessary today? He really needs to pay more attention. He glances down at his half formed drawings to see if he had maybe at least written anything useful related to the class, only to find a few small scattered hearts, as well as one large one with the initials "B+E" written in its center. Well, that's weird.

The paladin quickly shoves the paper into the back of his binder before anyone can see it, not sure exactly why his face is heating up so much. He must have chosen two random letters while he wasn't paying attention- he doesn't even know any couples with those initials! One thing was for certain though, no more doodling in class. If his grades start to slip- He cuts the thought off in his head. No need to daydream the angry lecture his dad is sure to give him. He only needs to hear it once. 

"Sorry, but do you know what we went over today?" He asked the air genasi who sits next to him. He seemed nice, and so far had turned in all his homework from what Beverly could tell, so he seemed a safe enough bet. "I kinda zoned out today." He added with a sheepish smile. 

"Really? You?" The air genasi asked with a laugh. "You usually take like two pages of notes a day. Even when we aren't doing notes."

Beverly shrugged, still smiling, in a “what are you going to do” motion. 

"Mrs. Shay told us to do the vocabulary for this chapter for tomorrow and gave us the class period to work on it. Want to copy mine till the bell rings so you don't have to flip through to find all the definitions? My h and writing is mostly legible, I promise."

"That would be great," Beverly said, eagerly getting out his own paper. Pelor, he really picked a bad day to zone out, apparently he was supposed to do 30 vocabulary words. 

"No problem," the air genasi, who Beverly really supposed he should learn the name of, smiled. "I was just teasing about the whole notes thing by the way, I really should pay more attention like you. I would ask what was different today but well… I noticed your drawings. Look like someone has a crush." He wiggled his eyebrows and laughed a little and Beverly's mind broke. 

A crush? 

He forced himself to laugh, though it came out a little awkward even to his ears. The genasi seemed a little startled, but handed him the paper and turned to the elf to his right to start up a new conversation. 

Beverly forced himself to focus on nothing but the words he was writing, but that was a little difficult when it came to something as mindless as copying vocabulary. It was made easier by the effort needed to discern what the original writer had written though, because it seemed his handwriting was a little less than mostly legible. He was kind of made of air and stuff, so holding a pen was probably difficult. Maybe. He didn’t really know a lot about how being made of elements worked. 

There was no way he had a crush on anyone. He had just been doodling random letters while he zoned out because he was tired. 

He was still trying to convince himself of that fact as he walked into home ec, spotting Hardwon and Moonshine already pulling out the flour and a large bowl. Noodles, he assumed as Hardwon also got out the large cutting board. A safe bet considering over half the recipes they made had noodles in their base. 

"Young Bev!" Moonshine greeted him happily. Beverly smiled back. Her smile was infectious. "Why don't you get the water out for the pasta? Leave the heat off for now though."

"Sounds good," he gave a thumbs up before turning to wash his hands. Putting two cups of water into a pan was hardly the most fun aspect of cooking, but he supposed it was fair that he got stuck with that job since he was late. Also, Moonshine was way better at making noodles than him. He couldn't help it if it always looked a little too dry to him. 

"Copper for your thoughts?" Hardwon asked. Beverly looked up, realizing he had simply been staring at the water for a weird amount of time and feeling his face flush. 

"Sorry," he muttered, making a show of being busy getting the rolling pin for Moonshine. "Just thinking about something someone said." 

“Do I need to beat someone up?” Hardwon asked, eyes narrowing and seemingly unconsciously cracking his knuckles.

“No, no! Nothing like that,” Beverly laughed. Hardwon relaxed slightly, though he still looked a little skeptical. “It’s just, I was doodling something, someone asked me if I had a crush, which is crazy because I  _ don’t  _ and-”

“Take a breath young Bev,” Moonshine chuckled. “Here, why don’t you roll out the dough while I force Hardwon to make the sauce they were supposed to make instead of sitting here gib gabbering around!”

“Aw but Moony,” they whined, fully taking out their earbuds. “You know how much I hate doing actual work.”

“Melora only knows that half the school is aware of your work ethic, oh Bastard of the Mountain.”

“Big words coming from the elf that just asked to copy my history worksheet during lunch like 20 minutes ago,” they shot back, getting up to grab the necessary ingredients from the pantry regardless, snatching up the recipe Beverly had failed to check yet on their way. 

“Now that they’re gone,” Moonshine leaned in with a stage whisper. “What’s this I’m hearing about a crush?”

“I don’t have a crush,” Beverly insisted. “I don’t even really talk to any girls besides Cran, and she and Derlin have practically always been together. I think their parents have already planned their wedding.”

“Who’s that other little halfing I always see you sitting with? Bout yea high-” she gestured to a height just slightly above Beverly’s “- freckles, red hair? Always see you looking at him with a big ol’ dopey grin whenever I look at your table?”

“Erlin?’ Beverly guessed, brow furrowed with confusion as he flipped the dough over on the cutting board and continued to roll it out. “Um yeah, I’m friends with him too.” 

“So,” Moonshine made a complicated gesture with her hands, and Beverly almost thought she was about to start casting a spell. “Maybe you’ve got a crush on him!” 

Beverly’s eyes went wide as his brain fought to process that. He was still standing there completely out of it when Hardwon returned a moment later, arms full of ingredients and somewhat concerned.

“What’s wrong with the kid?”

“Hardwon, I think I broke our freshie.”

“Moonshine,” they groaned. “I liked this one, I would really hate to have to replace him. What did you do?”

“I just asked if his little crush was on that youngin he sits with, that red headed one!”

“Oh…” Hardwon seemed to come to a realization, and turned to Beverly. “Look, kid, she’s not used to everyone not being as accepting as they are at the Crick. Just take your time figuring stuff out for yourself, alright?”

“Uh-huh,” Beverly nodded, still feeling like his brain had been completely wiped and then hastily refilled with the knowledge of how to do only the most basic of tasks. Like rolling dough, he realized as he got back to work. That was an important one. 

“Oh shoot,” Moonshine said. “That’s right, I always forget how weird some people can be about stuff like that. Just know it’s perfectly okay if you’ve got feelings for someone, even if some people have told you it’s not, alright?”

“Yeah,” Beverly swallowed, not looking up from the dough. “I don’t, though,” he added quietly. 

“RIght,” Hardwon said, and Beverly chose to ignore the skepticism in their voice. “Alright kid, you like sugar in your spaghetti?”

-

**Author's Note:**

> this isn't good. it's 3 am. blame murphnation (mich specifically)
> 
> please comment if you want to see more in the future that would mean a lot uwu i have ideas i want to write anyways but still


End file.
